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John Holmes (poet)
'' ''by George J. Dance John Albert Holmes Jr. (January 6, 1904 - June 22, 1962) was an American poet and academic.John Holmes, Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography, Web, July 16, 2012. Life Holmes was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Florence (Murdock) and John A. Holmes. His father was an engineer who specialized in building dams and bridges. The son attended local public schools and Westville Junior High School (where he edited its publication, The Western Star), and then enrolled in Tufts University at the urging of Albert Cousens, the president of Tuft's. After graduating in 1929 Holmes briefly attended Harvard University. From 1930 to 1932 he taught at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he was a colleague of Theodore Roethke. He also met and married his first wife, Sarah Frances Ludlow.Doris Holmes Eyges, "John Holmes: Poet and Friend of Poetry," Notable American Unitarians, Harvard Square Library, Web, July 16, 2012. In 1934 he returned to Tufts as an instructor. He worked there the rest of his life, rising to full professor in 1960. His first child, John Ludlow Holmes, was born in 1936. Holmes was admired by his students. Jerome Barron wrote of him: "When he taught, something magical happened. He made you want to write and understand poetry. He didn't lecture; he encouraged. Simplicity, and writing that went from the inside out, this is what he was after." Another of his students was the poet Anne Sexton. Also in 1934 Holmes became a Contributing Editor of the American Poetry Journal. He worked as poetry editor for the Boston Evening Transcript from 1935 to 1942. His first major collection, Address to the Living, was published in 1937. His first wife committed suicide in 1947. He remarried the following year, to Doris Vivian Kirk, a colleague at Tuft's. A second son, Evan Kirk Holmes, was born in 1950, and a daughter, Margaret Nash Holmes in 1954. He wrote several volumes of poetry and the lyrics to several Unitarian Universalist hymns.The John Holmes Collection - Bibliography, including "The People's Peace". Publications Poetry * Along the Row, and twelve other poems. Medford, MA: privately printed at the Tufts College Press, 1929. * Address to the Living. New York: Holt, 1937, 1939; New York: Twayne, 1949. *''Fair Warning''. New York: Holt, 1939. * The Poet's Work. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939. *''Map of My Country''. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1943. * The Double Root. New York: Twayne, 1950. * The Symbols. Iowa City, IA: Prairie Press, 1955. * The Fortune Teller. New York: Harper, 1961. * Selected Poems. Boston: Beacon, 1965. Prose * Along the Row; ... about Tufts College (by John Holmes & Melville H. e Smith Munro). Boston: Warren Press, 1944 * Preface to Poetry (by Charles William Cooper with John Holmes). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946. *''A Complete College Reader'' (by John Holmes & Carroll S. Toule). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950. * Writing Poetry. Boston: The Writer, 1960. Edited * A Little Treasury of Love Poems from Chaucer to Dylan Thomas (edited & with introduction by Holmes). New York: Scribner, 1950. (Includes two Holmes poems: "Take Home This Travelled Heart" p 167-68; "The Flower" p 144-45.) Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Tufts University.Books, The Poet's Life, John Holmes, Digital Collections and Archives, Tufts University, Web, July 16, 2012. See also * List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *"O God of Stars and Sunlight" at the Harvard Square Library ;About *John Holmes in the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biographies *"John Holmes, Universalist Poet and Mentor" *Reviews of Holmes' books ;Etc. *Second John Holmes Memorial Poetry Reading, April 5, 2006 Category:1904 births Category:1962 deaths Category:American poets Category:Boston Evening Transcript people Category:People from Somerville, Massachusetts Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets